Working in the forensic technology sector, it is increasingly apparent that the way a company manages its data is a critical capability for business success. However, keeping up with all the key developments around data is getting harder because business change is happening at an increasingly rapid pace. As a result, firms are often slow to implement the correct working processes and practices or create the culture change in their workforce to mitigate data risks, even though data is used so pervasively in all aspects of our lives.

This presents a potentially serious business risk and one which needs to be assessed, quantified and addressed. The first stage is to understand the key trends, and we believe there are three:

- Recognising that regulation is a fact of life and changing mindsets so that compliance because an integrated aspect of the way your firm does business, rather than a last-minute consideration.

- With businesses becoming more global, firms need an increasing amount of flexibility in their business models to adapt to local data regulations. Act global, think local was never more relevant than for cross-border data governance.

- Data threats are increasingly sophisticated. This means each employee needs to be vigilant and know how they should respond, before the issue takes root and becomes a crisis.

Making a meaningful change in this area is not easy, but based on our global experience working with clients in this area, the key steps that businesses need to take are:

Get C-Suite buy-in

Get the basics right

People, people, people

Use local experts

Think ahead.

By adopting these approaches, we believe firms are well placed to make a sustainable and meaningful change that will meet business and regulatory needs for the years to come.

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